Hitachi to Issue $1 Million in Loans Through Kiva Businesses Affected by COVID-19

By News Release

Hitachi, Ltd. announced on May 18 that it will make a contribution of USD 1 million to Kiva’s COVID-19 Response to support business owners impacted by COVID-19 through loans by Kiva, a U.S. nonprofit organization that supports lending to small businesses, entrepreneurs, farmers and families around the world through crowdfunding. Hitachi is a first major contributor to Kiva’s Global COVID-19 fund, a new program that will allow Kiva to fund the communities that have been hit hardest by this crisis. As repayments from these loans return to Hitachi’s account, they will fund new loans over a 4-year period, after which the balance will be a donation to Kiva.

Kiva is a global nonprofit organization whose mission is to expand financial access to underserved communities and the 1.7 billion people in the world who do not have access to financial services. Kiva facilitates loans to borrowers through their online crowdfunding platform, and to date 1.9 million people have funded over USD 1.44 billion in loans to 3.6 million borrowers in 77 countries. Hitachi has made a new contribution of USD 1 million to Hitachi’s Kiva fund to support small business operators affected by the spread of the COVID-19, in addition to the first contribution of USD 100,000 in 2017.

Specifically, Hitachi Group employees will have an opportunity to choose business owners affected by COVID-19, and make a loan of USD 25 from the Hitachi fund. Hitachi also hopes to engage their community in Kiva’s COVID-19 response through Hitachi's social media accounts. Individuals who make a loan on Kiva first, will receive an additional USD 25 credit on behalf of Hitachi, to lend to another borrower. Any remaining funds will be used to match loans made on the Kiva platform. By engaging employees and the community, Hitachi will provide financial support of USD 1 million in total to the small business operators all over the world.

"All Hitachi employees are working on the COVID-19 spread prevention by collecting ideas in the Hitachi Group internal idea contest “Make a difference!” in addition to supplying masks and other goods and manufacturing and providing face shields free of charge," said Hidenobu Nakahata, (pictured above) Senior Vice President and Executive Officer, CHRO, Hitachi, Ltd. "The loans through the Kiva platform are realized by “Make a difference!”

Hitachi will contribute to realization of a sustainable society through Hitachi’s employees’ proactive commitment to financial support through Kiva for the business operators affected by the spread of COVID-19.”

“At Kiva, we are incredibly proud to launch a COVID-19 response fund with the support of Hitachi. It is through this response that we are able to accelerate the necessary loans required to support all people when they need it the most, said Neville Crawley, CEO at Kiva. "Currently, we are seeing a financial support gap, the most vulnerable are being left behind and we need to provide our support to them. Our vision has always been financial inclusivity and now it is more important than ever. We thank Hitachi and their amazing employees for their support.”